‘The whole sum of what might be said about questioning is comprised in this: It ought to set the learners thinking, to promote activity and energy on their parts, and to arouse the whole mental faculty into action instead of blindly cultivating the memory at the expense of the higher intellectual powers.’ The Art of Teaching Sir Joshua G Fitch

Questioning & Dialogue

Over 1,000, seconds 4.1/3 of lessons 5.84% of lessons 6.Over 90% seconds seconds 9.62% of questions 10.15% of pupils All the following answers relate to questioning. Can you work out the questions?

To interest, engage and challenge pupils. To check on prior knowledge and make connections between previous and new learning. To focus learning on new ideas and concepts. To extend pupils’ thinking from the concrete to the analytical and evaluative. The promote pupils’ thinking about the way they have learned (metacognition). Why do we ask questions?

What is a good question?

Questions “There is no such thing as a good question, or a bad question. What matters is the reason we have for asking the question, and then how we react to the responses we get to it...”

Learning Aims: To be able to frame questions, deliver them, and respond to the answers in ways that maximise engagement and learning.

Fishing & Shooting! The most basic definition between questions is open and closed. Closed questions have a single correct answer eg yes/no, a date a name. Control of the conversation is with the questioner. They can feel safe and keep the lesson moving. What is…? Name…? Can you remember…? Open questions have no single correct answer, many possibilities, are sometimes a matter of opinion or interpretation. More often than not, these lean towards high order thinking. Explain why/ how...What do you think..? How do these compare? Why is... important?

In pairs Categorize these open and closed questions

Questions “There is no such thing as a good question, or a bad question. What matters is the reason we have for asking the question, and then how we react to the responses we get to it...”

Task Draw each other's houses!

Task A= open questions only!

Task Draw each other's houses! B= mixture of open and closed.

Write down 3 closed questions for a topic you’ll teach this week.

Funnelling Closed Explain Explore (opinion) What is 42 x 4..? How did you work it out..? Could you have done it any other way..?

Funnelling Closed Explain Explore (opinion) Who became King in 1066…? How did he become king…? Do you think it was fair…?

Turn one of your closed questions into an open question using funnelling.

Evaluation Generating new ideas, products, or ways of viewing things. Designing, constructing, planning, producing, inventing Synthesis Justifying a decision or course of action. Checking, hypothesising, critiquing, experimenting, judging Analysis Breaking information into parts to explore understandings and relationships. Comparing, organising, deconstructing, interrogating, finding Application Using information in another familiar situation. Implementing, carrying out, using, executing Comprehension Explaining ideas or concepts. Interpreting, summarising, paraphrasing, classifying, explaining Knowledge Recalling information. Recognising, listing, describing, retrieving, naming. QUESTIONING FOR LEARNING: BLOOM’S TAXONOMY High Order

Which parts could not be true? Why did Goldilocks like little bear’s bed best? Was Goldilocks good or bad? Why? What happened in the story? Can you think of a different ending? What would have happened if Goldilocks had come to your house? BLOOMING QUESTIONS KNOWLEDGE COMPREHENSION APPLICATION ANALYSIS SYNTHESIS EVALUATION

Which parts could not be true? Why did Goldilocks like little bear’s bed best? Was Goldilocks good or bad? Why? What happened in the story? Can you think of a different ending? What would have happened if Goldilocks had come to your house? BLOOMING QUESTIONS KNOWLEDGE What happened in the story? COMPREHENSION Why did Goldilocks like the little bears bed best? APPLICATION What would have happened if Goldilocks had come to your house? ANALYSIS Which parts could not be true? SYNTHESIS Can you think of a different ending? EVALUATION Was Goldilocks good or bad and why?

Pick a topic that you will be teaching this week and plan your questions using the Bloom’s Planning Kit. More ‘Blooming’ Questions!

Maximising Engagement How can we make sure that all pupils answer questions? Mind map your ideas as a group and I’ll ask for one person (at random) to feedback.

Ideas: Post-it notes Paper on table- all write round robin No hands up policy Random name generator Random picture generator Kagan structures, rally robin, think-pair-share Postcards Seating plan- use for targeted questions Using register to answer questions Corners- ABCD RAG cards in planner Mini whiteboards Lollipop sticks Raffle tickets

Maximising Engagement? How can we keep pupils talking? WAIT TIME When teachers increase the average wait time to 3 seconds; The length of explanations amongst advantaged groups increases fivefold, and amongst disadvantaged groups sevenfold Failures to respond decreases from 30% to less than 5% The number of questions asked by children rises... Rowe (1986); University of Florida

Minimal Encouragers Keeps students talking. They are brief responses that show that you are there, listening. They involve saying very little and offer minimal direction. ‘Go on...’ ‘Tell me more about...’ ‘Why do you say that?’ ‘mmm...’ Raising eyebrows/ indicating to go on with hands... What do you do?

What questions does Anna Bowen use? Are they effective?

Implications Plan to ask questions Plan the questions you will ask Look for progression in questioning, in understanding, and in thinking

Final Thought… “Not all of our questions are answered...” “...but all of our answers are questioned”

Hands down: teacher selects pupil(s) to answer Wait time: all pupils have the opportunity to think before answering Pupils encouraged to consult in their group/with a partner in order to formulate an answer Teacher involves a number of pupils in the answer to a single question, creating the opportunity for discussion, eg “What do you think?” “Do you agree with that answer?” Use of wrong answers to develop understanding Appropriateness of questions; fit for purpose Quality of questions – good question stems, eg “Why does…?” “What if…?” “How would you..?” “Could you explain….? Opportunities for pupils to formulate questions Personalised Questioning to support your lessons’ AFL

Extend thinking time after you have asked a question and after a first response Adopt a rule of ‘No hands up’ Avoid the temptation to prompt, provide the answer or move on to someone else Ask questions randomly and return to the same pupils on two or three occasions If pupils cannot answer a question, leave it with them and say you will come back to them after they have thought about it. Don’t forget to go back! Ask pupils to work in pairs on your questions (KAGAN) – discussion encourages collaboration and clarification of thought Personalised Questioning Tips for asking questions